No environment will ever stay strange for Man. Man is built to last, adapt, and progress. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”-Charles Darwin. In Pierre Boulle’s novel, Planet of The Apes, the characters are faced with the dilemma of having to adjust to the culture and lifestyle of the inhabitants on the planet Soror. Boulle demonstrates that man can assimilate to any environment one finds themselves in, no matter how displaced they are. The protagonist, Ulysse and his companions are forced to adapt when they first arrived to the planet Soror. The characters crossed paths with a human species that was beast like, they had little to no intelligence and relied purely on instinct. Ulysse and his companions were not immediately accepted by the beast like humans. Ulysse exclaims, “We realized we were by no means welcome to share it. Quite the contrary! Angry growls made us draw back quickly” (Boulle 49). On the following page Ulysse explains, “After a moment’s hesitation we grew bold enough to imitate her... Each of us chose a corner in the grass in which to build a nest similar to the others in the colony” (Boulle 50). Ulysse and his crew mates begin to conform themselves to the way of the beast like humans. The characters adapt to the lifestyle so they can be accepted by the people and become a part of their society. Ulysse is continuously assimilating to an environment he is not familiar with. When Ulysse is captured he is furious, when he demonstrates gestures that show that he is not a human beast, the apes do nothing but laugh at him except for one ape. A chimpanzee named Zira, she notices that he was more intelligent than the other humans. Zira started working with Ulysse to explore all his capabilities, she helps him in the ways she can, such as teaching him the language and ways of the apes, in return he helps her. Ulysse states “Thanks to Zira, my knowledge of the simian world and language increased rapidly” (Boulle 125). Ulysse was laughed at, taunted at and looked at crazy by the apes for trying to show his elegance. Being in a society where he was not welcomed, he had to conform to feel
An individuals sense of belonging within society is governed by their perspectives and views towards their environment and landscape,their own ability to adjust and appreciate the environment governs whether they can feel at home with their setting or alienate themselves from new cultures and long for old traditions.Raimond Gaita’s Romulus My Father and Manfred Jurgensen’s Bonegilla 1961 reflect the consequences of negative perceptions and an inability to understand new landscapes which lead to negative consequences.
The human body will physically and psychologically respond to changes in the environment through biological and cultural ways. In the novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel the apocalypse wipes out most of the Earth’s population leaving the survivors behind in a world where all civilization is gone. They must adapt to the conditions in order for survival, in the twenty years past this becomes increasingly evident. In the novel, she suggests that humanity’s ability to adapt under any circumstance is critical to survival, this is shown through the creation of new societies, each town beginning to function, and
The word “Lycanthropic” means to transform, have the ability to transform, or to have already transformed into a nonhuman animal. Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, is about a group of girls who are sent to St. Lucy’s by their parents who happen to be werewolves, to become more like humans, and experience a lycanthropic culture shock in the process. However, not all girls can easily adjust to the standards St. Lucy’s calls for. The parents want their children to adapt to the human culture, so that the children don’t have to live the same life they, the parents, have to. However, the girls’ parents are werewolves, and this makes it so that they cannot provide the girls with the life style they wish they could have. To be able to understand the story and the “Lycanthropic Culture Shock” the girls go through, you have to understand where the girls come from, why they need to change, and why it is hard for some to change.
The movie that I choose to watch is “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. In class we learned that primates have different categories. The categories include; movement, reproduction, intelligence and behavior patterns. In the movie, the main ape, Caesar, as well as the other primates in the movie shows examples of these categories. Although, like most modern day movies, some behaviors and characteristics are not true and do not relate to the material that we studied in class.
The book I chose was “Planets Without Apes” by Craig B. Stanford. The book was published by The Belknap Press (Harvard) by Harvard University Press, in 2013. I think that the book was a good factual read and that there was a lot of good information but with that said, I think it was a bit jumbled with too much information. I say this because there are many, many different large ideas. It is like a tree with the trunk being the idea of a planet without apes and off the trunk are the branches which symbolize the smaller information about what would happen without apes then off of the branches are the leaves which are small little bits of information that all resemble the idea of what would happen with a planet without apes. The way that Stanford portrays his information is great but eventually can be hard to follow.
The key to change is acceptance. “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell follows the steps that need to occur to go through a cultural change from a wolf to a human society, and shares what happens if the transformation remains incomplete. This story shows that acceptance is the only way to complete a change because a person has to accept the change itself, others around them, and themselves. If this does not happen, then there will always be something from the person’s old life holding them back making it nearly impossible to move forward in their new life.
Planet of the Apes takes the world as we know it and turns it upside down and in so doing questions almost every belief and value system of mankind. Written and produced at a time when America and much of the world was in the midst of a cultural change and people were questioning and protesting everything the screenwriters take make this film a satirical and thought provoking commentary on the big questions of the era. The Vietnam War, the struggle for equal treatment of African Americans and a general mindset of questioning religion and traditional values were the things that made up the American culture of the nineteen sixties. The film grapples with and makes ant attempt to address most of the issues of the period in which it was written. Three thousand years into the future man has devolved into a non-speaking primitive being while apes have evolved into intellectual beings capable of rational thought and speech. Taylor, the captain of the spaceship and tragic hero, speaks his last words before hibernating his way into the distant future, he states that he is leaving the twentieth century and asks a question, “Tell me, though, does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother ... keep his neighbor's children starving?” Taylor, a cynic and skeptic, sees man as violent and destructive. When he arrives in the future to a world where apes are supreme the antagonist of the film, Dr.
From the start of mankind, humans have been evolving in the way they think, in the way they speak and in the way they believe. The canonical literature created by some of the celebrated writers in the United States shows a shifting evolution in regards to conformity slowly progressing into individuality.
Joseph Henrich began, A Puzzling Primate, by describing how physically inept human beings are when compared to the rest of the animal kingdom. He continues with this logic when he demonstrates, that humans in this era, would not be able to survive if placed in the wild forest environment. Due to the biological weakness of humans, culture became a necessary defense mechanism and a form of protection. Culture became a unique way for humans to adapt. Despite the obvious physical weakness of humans, through culture we have rose to be the dominant species.
In nature adaptation is necessary for survival, the same can be said of humans forced to endure terrible situations. Sold by Patricia McCormick and Night by Elie Wessel both deal with characters that must adapt to survive. By examining the novels Night and Sold we can see how the main characters adapt which is important because adaptation is necessary to survive challenges that would otherwise be impossible to endure.
Each of the main characters, like the animals, responds to life with natural instincts, despite the attempts of others to influence what is simply not in their nature to do.
Tarzan of the Apes began it all for Edgar Rice Burroughs, propelling him into the world of literature with no understanding how he happened to succeed in becoming ranked among the finest adventure story authors. His stories set the stage of adventure story-telling through his narrative efficiency in their construction, capturing and keeping the audience’s imagination (Gioia, 2014; Bartlett, 2017). Although from humble beginnings published as a pulp fiction adventure, there is much debate over categorising Tarzan of the Apes into a specific genre, as some argue elements of romance and science fiction. This essay aims to assess the text to determine how it engages in its primary genre of adventure fiction, and how it may fit in and engage
Different anthropologists such as Nowak and Laird (2010), and Butler (2006), recommended that these residents of jungles contain an exclusive background; position, morals and everyday life is entirely through big adjustment. It can be said that the
When Planet of the Apes opened in theaters, few people knew what to expect. To most, the idea of a movie with the premise of a planet full of intelligent apes went against everything they had been taught. The initial attraction was the superb cast, spearheaded by Charlton Heston who portrays Taylor, an astronaut who crashes onto the planet. Heston was joined by many popular actors and actress such as, Roddy McDowell as Cornelius, Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius and Kim Hunter as Zira. Though the cast may have been the initial draw, the content is what has made the movie Planet of the Apes a classic that will continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.
Nearly everything that a human does is in response to the environment. Our lives are defined by what is around us and what we find in front of us, whether this means accepting, dealing with or changing it. This has been the pattern since primates first stood up and became Homo erectus, and has continued until we considered ourselves doubly wise. The shape of the land affected where humans moved. Weather was something with which to contend. Fire affected humans until they conquered it – and herein lies the core of the relationship. The earth affects humans, and humans affect it back, viewing characteristics and patterns as problems and challenges, and finding a solution.